Troilus And Cressida is one of the lesser-known Shakespeare plays. In fairness, there's no such thing as an obscure play by the Bard – they've ALL been performed and dramatised numerous times. But Troilus And Cressida certainly belongs on a list of the ones that everyday viewers are less familiar with, alongside titles like Pericles, King John and Timon Of Athens. It's a problematic play to put on stage or film, for sure
throughout, the text defies expectations and refuses to be pinned down into any single genre. One moment, you'd confident labelling it a history, the next it veers into comedy... and there's enough tragedy throughout the proceedings for it to be labelled one of those too.
During the Trojan Wars several soldiers from both sides find their motivation to carry on fighting wilting badly. Trojan Troilus (Anton Lesser) is lovestruck over the lowly maiden Cressida (Suzanne Burden), whose father recently defected to the Greeks; while in the Greek camp the fearsome Achilles (Kenneth Haigh) refuses to leave his tent to join in with the fighting and lives off former glories while his comrades die in combat on a daily basis. The great Trojan warrior Hector (John Shrapnel) issues a challenge to the Greeks, demanding that they send their best fighter to come and face him on the field. He expects this to rouse Achilles out of his self-imposed retirement. But the Greeks, especially cunning Ulysses (Benjamin Whitrow) see through his plan and send out one of their lesser warriors, Ajax (Anthony Pedley), to accept the challenge. Troilus eventually manages to consummate a relationship with Cressida, but the very next day she is traded over the Greeks to be with her father, in return for a captured Trojan warrior. Troilus is devastated and, in blind rage, rediscovers his lust for combat. Meanwhile, matters come to a head on the battlefield as Hector, Ajax, Achilles and others meet to fight it out for supremacy in the staled impasse of the war. All these events are commented upon by a pair of cynical, sharp-tongued onlookers from both sides, the Trojan Pandarus (Charles Gray) and the Greek Thersites (Jack Birkett).
Part of the ambitious BBC Shakespeare series (in which the Beeb ambitiously set themselves the target of filming every single Shakesperean play), this production is low-budget but well-done. The acting is pretty good overall – with Whitrow as Ulysses and Gray as Pandarus especially fine in their roles. There are a few examples of miscasting, most notably Birkett as Thersites. Blind in real life, Birkett is a very good actor but horribly miscast as Thersites here: the delivery of the savage, bitter outbursts that make Thersites such a powerful character is camped-up too much and distorts the character. Also, a number of the great Greek and Trojan figures are played by actors who seem the wrong age for the roles – the likes of Aeneas, Nestor and Agamemnon, while well-played, are portrayed by actors considerably older than the play demands. There are some very memorable scenes during the course of the production, especially the brutal murder of Hector (a shot of Achilles standing on the crushed and bloodied head of his rival is extremely shocking) and the emotionally electrifying scene where Cressida learns she is to be traded to the enemy just hours after finally consummating her love for Troilus. As a satiric swipe at the nature of heroism, almost an attempt to subvert and ridicule heroic ideals, the production works very effectively. Some day, a really big budget and 'cinematic' version of this story may appear until that day, this is a more-than-adequate substitute. Good stuff.
During the Trojan Wars several soldiers from both sides find their motivation to carry on fighting wilting badly. Trojan Troilus (Anton Lesser) is lovestruck over the lowly maiden Cressida (Suzanne Burden), whose father recently defected to the Greeks; while in the Greek camp the fearsome Achilles (Kenneth Haigh) refuses to leave his tent to join in with the fighting and lives off former glories while his comrades die in combat on a daily basis. The great Trojan warrior Hector (John Shrapnel) issues a challenge to the Greeks, demanding that they send their best fighter to come and face him on the field. He expects this to rouse Achilles out of his self-imposed retirement. But the Greeks, especially cunning Ulysses (Benjamin Whitrow) see through his plan and send out one of their lesser warriors, Ajax (Anthony Pedley), to accept the challenge. Troilus eventually manages to consummate a relationship with Cressida, but the very next day she is traded over the Greeks to be with her father, in return for a captured Trojan warrior. Troilus is devastated and, in blind rage, rediscovers his lust for combat. Meanwhile, matters come to a head on the battlefield as Hector, Ajax, Achilles and others meet to fight it out for supremacy in the staled impasse of the war. All these events are commented upon by a pair of cynical, sharp-tongued onlookers from both sides, the Trojan Pandarus (Charles Gray) and the Greek Thersites (Jack Birkett).
Part of the ambitious BBC Shakespeare series (in which the Beeb ambitiously set themselves the target of filming every single Shakesperean play), this production is low-budget but well-done. The acting is pretty good overall – with Whitrow as Ulysses and Gray as Pandarus especially fine in their roles. There are a few examples of miscasting, most notably Birkett as Thersites. Blind in real life, Birkett is a very good actor but horribly miscast as Thersites here: the delivery of the savage, bitter outbursts that make Thersites such a powerful character is camped-up too much and distorts the character. Also, a number of the great Greek and Trojan figures are played by actors who seem the wrong age for the roles – the likes of Aeneas, Nestor and Agamemnon, while well-played, are portrayed by actors considerably older than the play demands. There are some very memorable scenes during the course of the production, especially the brutal murder of Hector (a shot of Achilles standing on the crushed and bloodied head of his rival is extremely shocking) and the emotionally electrifying scene where Cressida learns she is to be traded to the enemy just hours after finally consummating her love for Troilus. As a satiric swipe at the nature of heroism, almost an attempt to subvert and ridicule heroic ideals, the production works very effectively. Some day, a really big budget and 'cinematic' version of this story may appear until that day, this is a more-than-adequate substitute. Good stuff.